That is what Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said he has learned while campaigning the past few months across the the state in his bid for the Republican nomination in the 2018 contest for governor. The four-term mayor said there are others who remain optimistic and are excited about his campaign.

Cornett said he is a consensus builder who can “fix the mess” and deal with the issues he believes must be addressed in order to move the state forward. He identified the state’s budget as a priority issue, saying “there are budgetary practices … we don’t recognize when we look at state government.”

“Taking one-time money and using it to plug a hole in your annual budget, I mean those are not things that build confidence in the private sector or in New York’s rating agencies,” Cornett said Friday while campaigning in Muskogee. “The S&P lowered the state’s rating … and really warned us that if we didn’t get our act together they’re gonna lower it again — that’s, of course, millions of dollars in interest that we have to pay when we borrow money for infrastructure projects.”